Thursday, June 24, 2010

Scope advice bleg:

I know very little about handgun scopes. I mean, I know good brands and bad brands, and some stuff that transfers directly from rifle optics, but I haven't had glass on a handgun since I sold my 8-3/8" Smith 586 five or six years ago.

Now I need to put glass on a T/C Encore in .243 Win with a fifteen-inch tube. The mission is most likely going to be Indiana whitetail. Tips? Pointers? Suggestions?

I don't know how much work this thing's going to see past 100 yards. With a 100gr bullet, .243 is at the lower end of the power spectrum for Bambi, and I ain't the world's best pistol shot, either, so unless the deer's close enough for me to feel confident, I don't know that I'll get much use out of a 12x optic...

Unless the deer is on the move or over about 200 lbs and over 150 yards, I think that the 100g .243 is a superb choice, even out of the 15" bbl.

I have zero personal knowledge about handgun pistol scopes, but that's only because I live in a land where rifles are allowed. When I handgun hunt, I use iron sights and a field holster. But I understand why you're doing this silly thing, and it makes since. (So, by definition, it's not silly.)

Oh wait-- Dad's Savage Scout has a Leupold intermediate eye relief on it, so I guess I've used ONE pistol scope.

I believe you will find that .243 is not allowed for whitetails in Indiana. Deer must be taked with a shotgun, or with a rifle in a handgun cartridge, which is listed in the book. (currently .45 Colt, .44 Mag, .357 Mag, AFAIK)

Well, since you have said you are a tall lady - 2 to 3 power, long eye relief, decent brand. The Tasco on the .22 and the Burris on the Remington work fine.

Look through it and make sure it will give you a full field of view and come into focus for YOU at your arms length before you fork over any dough. Eyes vary, and I have seen some that would not - but were fine for someone else.

Use some anti-slip in the rings, pistol recoils are sharp and even sharper with rifle calibers.

I have a 6" 686 Smith with a Leupold M8-2X extended eye relief (EER) scope on it. I've had it and hunted with it for some decades now. That being said, I'm no expert on hunting with handguns, but I do have a few pointers.

A 2X scope is more than enough. The more magnification there is, the harder it is to convince yourself you're on target. Remember, hunting shooting is not target shooting.

Likely you will need a rest to shoot from, and likely you won't have a good one. A pair of shooting sticks, a pair of shooting gloves, and possibly a bit of padding are in order. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

I used to hunt deer with a Remington Model 6 in .243. Mine was lightened and shortened for use in hilly country and had an 18.5" barrel. So, I have considerable experience shooting deer with a slower-than-normal .243 round. At one end of the spectrum, the biggest deer I ever killed was a 10-pointer that field-dressed at 172 pounds. A heart shot with that .243 dropped it within 20 yards, but I don't remember what bullet I used. At the other end of the spectrum, a 100 grain Nosler Partition did NOT expand at all, drilling a pencil-thin hole broadside through both lungs on a nice doe at only 35 yards, after which a follow-up running shot at 75 yards clipped its spine and dropped it. Thus, the primary tip I can give from this is to choose your ammunition carefully. Make sure the bullet will perform properly at the lower velocity you will be shooting it at.

Now for a funny anecdote.

The first time I ever took that 686 Smith out for deer, I sat on a ridge top that was clear of undergrowth and had a trail that came up one side and down the other. Sure enough, a marvelous buck came up that trail and crossed slowly in front of me at about 25 yards. He had a 14-point rack: his brow tines were split and V-shaped. Quite literally, this was the biggest set of whitetail antlers I ever saw on the hoof, but otherwise he was a small deer. I fired, with a very clear sight picture of the crosshairs on his boiler room. He lit up his afterburners and was out of sight in about three seconds. I walked to where he was when I fired and found no sign whatever that I had hit him. No blood, no hair, nothing. I walked slowly back to my stool and came across a tiny hickory sapling about three feet tall, halfway between my stool and where the deer was when I fired. I was shooting half-jacketed semi-wadcutter bullets; my round had clipped two tiny limbs off that sapling and been deflected, leaving nice half-moon cutouts on their cut ends. A really nice doe came running up the same trail about a half hour later, and she didn't stand a chance.

So, this ain't easy. But do your homework, get it right, and it's a lot of fun.

I'd second Kevin on the Burris 3-12x. I have one on most of my specialty pistols. For short-range stuff, crank it down to 3x and you still have a very nice field of view and lots of light due to the 32mm objective lens. IIRC most of the fixed-power handgun scopes don't have objectives that big. FWIW, some of the newer pricier versions at SHOT 2010 had an electronic red dot for those darker times.

I use a Leupold 2.5-8 X 32 and love it. The Leupold can be a bit more expensive, however, Cabelas has an error on thier pricing for the newest 2010 shooting catalog, and the scope can be had for $399 instead of $549. I called and they will honor the catalog price and ship free to your door. The variable isn't for everyone.